Discover the best tourist attractions of western Ukraine with Maria Zawaski! Maria is a freelance journalist, born on the West of Ukraine, got married to Canada. "Now, when I live abroad, I recommend to all my foreign friends to visit western part of my home country Ukraine. Why the western one - it is because I used to live there, so I am more familiar with that part of the country and I can tell lots of stories about the culture, lifestyle and traditions of Ukrainian West," Maria says

“Polonyna Summer 2009” Hutsul Festival In Ukrainian Carpathians

June 21, 2009 my family and I have attended the “Polonyna Summer 2009” hutsul festival in the town of Verkhniy Yaseniv. The town is located in Verkhovyna district of Ivano-Frankivsk region in Ukrainian Carpathians.
Wow! It was the Festival of Year for us, without any doubts! It was feast of hutsul music, food, embroidery and spirit of Carpathian Mountains. We also had a unique opportunity to see and hear a special guest of the festival: Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko!Well, I better start from the beginning and explain you, what all this festival (“Polonyna Summer 2009”) about. “Polonyna” in Ukrainian means sub-alpine mountains meadows. Together, “Polonyna Summer”, it means farewell festivity in honor of sheep herders, which are going up to the mountains (to the polonynas) for whole summer: to graze sheeps. The “Polonyna Summer” festival is annual.
Here are some pictures and videos we took at the festival. As I am a big fan of Ukrainian embroidery and traditional Ukrainian attire, I just counld’t resist to take pictures of these hutsul women in colorful embroidered shirts: or traditional hutsul footwearSpeaking of my husband, he love good food, so I am not wondering that he took picture of this young shef making shish kebabor people having outdoor reception.We personally had this shish kebab and I must to tell you guys: it was the best pork shish kebab we had that summer. The meat was soft and juiced, fresh and well-marinated before barbequing (as a woman and good cook myself, I could feel it).
So, reception was great, but most of our time we spent by this wooden stage enjoying all-day-long non-stop concert of the hutsul music. Concert opening was done by professionals: the “Hutsulia” singing and dancing ensemble from Ivano-Frankivsk. Here is video of their version of Kolomyyka (Kolomyyka is a traditional style of singing and dancing in Ukrainian Carpathians):

Some dances performed by the “Hutsulia” ensemble contained some fun tricks like this:

Except singing, dancing, having reception and shopping for local souvenirs, there were other kinds of entertainment, like training how to ride a horse. You can see my niece Natalya at this picture: girl is on the horse for the first time in her life :) !But, as I told you already, the biggest surprise and the biggest excitement for us at this festival was to see a President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko!
When we came to the festival’s entrance we saw this young people in traditional hutsul costumes with korovays (decorated breads) and lots of media around,so we knew that they are getting ready to meet some big shot. I thought it will be somebody from local authority, for example, regional governor. But people talked to each other: “President is coming!”
Wow, what a pleasant surprise it was for us! Why surprise? Actually, I have read in media that President is invited to the festival, but I did not pay much attention to it, because, as I am originally from Western Ukraine, I knew that there is some “fashion” to invite a President to almost every festivity over there. Sure, the President is too busy to go to each festival, where he is invited, but looks like we were lucky to see Victor Yushchenko at “Polonyna Summer 2009”: he attended it!
After official part where President of Ukraine gave a greeting speech to the festival,Victor Yushchenko had a good time at “Polonyna Summer 2009”. He enjoyed hutsul music at the festival and he also got some souvenirs for his family. He was taking pictures of young hutsul dancersand with young hutsul generation.He tried dishes of local cuisine and shared them with people.My niece’s husband was very happy, because he happened to be among of those who shared this little reception with Ukrainian President :)

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You don’t need visa for travel to Ukraine

If you are citizen of USA, Canada, European Union, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, you don’t need a TOURIST visa for travel to Ukraine. Decree about it was signed in 2005. Tourist visa to Ukraine means that you are going to stay in Ukraine not more than 90 days. So for your short term stay in Ukraine (less than 90 days) you just need to have a travel passport and to buy a ticket, that’s it.
P.S. The same rules work for the citizens of Japan, Andorra, Vatican, Iceland, Monaco, Norway and San Marino. People of these countries don’t need a tourist visa to Ukraine, too.